Garmin Autoland is emergency only autoland. Not to be confused with CAT II/III autoland used in normal operations.
Btw, here's probably the only actual cat IIIC landing video on YT:
Piper Announces First GA Aircraft with Autoland Capability
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Re: Piper Announces First GA Aircraft with Autoland Capability
#42This is a seriously impressive bit of software engineering. It seems as simple as "push a button" to the layman but what happens when: There is a thunderstorm between the airport and the runway The nearest runway is closed due to a blizzard There is a mountain between the normal 3-degree glide-slope and the runway, an "offset approach" There is a 40-knot crosswind You have an engine out That's just a few, I'm a comme…
> During all phases of flight it communicates with passengers and appropriate air traffic control facilities regarding the new flight plan route and estimated time until landing.
Which would suggest that if you need to be vectored to a runway, the aircraft can negotiate that with ATC automatically (and perhaps ATC can advise which is the most appropriate diversion?) This in the situation where the pilot is incapacitated, but the aircraft isn't in an immediate risk of crashing (e.g. you're cruising, but there's bad weather immediately below you).
It should also be able to use stuff like D-ATIS to get airport conditions.
That seems optimistic though, perhaps it just announces its intentions and hopes ATC clears a path?
Re: Piper Announces First GA Aircraft with Autoland Capability
#43The tech is still interesting, even if similar things that are used even in non-emergency scenarios have existed in large jets for a few decades. The one thing I don't understand is if it always just relies on WAAS and GPS no matter what, or, if depending on the runway it chooses to land, it may use something like an ILS.
It won't try to do ILS. I think the issue is that where GPS is available it can definitely put that plane down. Maybe it's not the world's greatest landing due to GPS inaccuracy, not right on the centre line, tries to put the gear through the floor - maybe the airframe ends up totalled, but if every passenger on the plane walks away it's a huge success given the pilot was incapacitated. Whereas for ILS that gets you…
> I think the issue is that where GPS is available it can definitely put that plane down. Maybe it's not the world's greatest landing due to GPS inaccuracy, not right on the centre line, ...
I wonder how this will change when the L2, L5, and L1C signals start becoming used from the GPS III satellites.
Also, in the US, non-GPS/Navstar signals cannot officially be used for anything, though I think Galileo was recently (finally) approved by the FCC:
* https://www.gsa.europa.eu/newsroom/news/fcc-approves-use-gal...
(The issue was something like: once officially approved, the frequencies in questions cannot be used for anything else, and are protected.)
Re: Piper Announces First GA Aircraft with Autoland Capability
#44Maybe a coincidence, but Cirrus Aircraft announced their SafeReturn Emergency Autoland on their Vision Jet series today as well [0]. Looks pretty impressive. A passenger can just press one button on the roof behind the pilot, and the aircraft will send a distress signal, re-route and autoland the aircraft at the nearest airport (including terrain and weather avoidance) and also convert all screens on board to inform the passengers how to use the radio for comms etc.
Re: Piper Announces First GA Aircraft with Autoland Capability
#45This is a seriously impressive bit of software engineering. It seems as simple as "push a button" to the layman but what happens when: There is a thunderstorm between the airport and the runway The nearest runway is closed due to a blizzard There is a mountain between the normal 3-degree glide-slope and the runway, an "offset approach" There is a 40-knot crosswind You have an engine out That's just a few, I'm a comme…
>but what happens when...
You handle those things manually by setting proper inputs to the normal non-emergency autopilot or flying without autopilot like you would in any other aircraft equipped with an autopilot that is capable of landing. I assume "one off" approaches are a non issue because they are using a database of supported airports with the necessary approach details since they change slowly and the list is short enough. That's traditionally how this kind of thing is handled.
This is not a replacement for a pilot and is not portrayed as such.
Re: Piper Announces First GA Aircraft with Autoland Capability
#46Maybe a coincidence, but Cirrus Aircraft announced their SafeReturn Emergency Autoland on their Vision Jet series today as well [0]. Looks pretty impressive. A passenger can just press one button on the roof behind the pilot, and the aircraft will send a distress signal, re-route and autoland the aircraft at the nearest airport (including terrain and weather avoidance) and also convert all screens on board to inform…
Not a coicidence: https://www.flyer.co.uk/garmin-launches-autoland-emergency-s...
Looks like Garmin coordinated the announcement.
Re: Piper Announces First GA Aircraft with Autoland Capability
#47Maybe a coincidence, but Cirrus Aircraft announced their SafeReturn Emergency Autoland on their Vision Jet series today as well [0]. Looks pretty impressive. A passenger can just press one button on the roof behind the pilot, and the aircraft will send a distress signal, re-route and autoland the aircraft at the nearest airport (including terrain and weather avoidance) and also convert all screens on board to inform…
They are both using the Garmin Autonomi Autoland system.
Re: Piper Announces First GA Aircraft with Autoland Capability
#48This is a seriously impressive bit of software engineering. It seems as simple as "push a button" to the layman but what happens when: There is a thunderstorm between the airport and the runway The nearest runway is closed due to a blizzard There is a mountain between the normal 3-degree glide-slope and the runway, an "offset approach" There is a 40-knot crosswind You have an engine out That's just a few, I'm a comme…
> During all phases of flight it communicates with passengers and appropriate air traffic control facilities regarding the new flight plan route and estimated time until landing. Which would suggest that if you need to be vectored to a runway, the aircraft can negotiate that with ATC automatically (and perhaps ATC can advise which is the most appropriate diversion?) This in the situation where the pilot is incapacita…
Yes it’ll squawk emergency transponder and broadcast on the radio.
Re: Piper Announces First GA Aircraft with Autoland Capability
#49$2.994M. Guess I'll just ride my bike then.
Re: Piper Announces First GA Aircraft with Autoland Capability
#50Earlier quoted context omitted.
For anyone else wondering what "emergency only autoland" means: From Wikipedia: "The feature is activated by a guarded red button on Garmin G3000 NX avionics, evaluating winds, weather and fuel reserves to select a suitable diversion airport and taking over the aircraft controls to land, it advises the ATC and displays instructions to occupants." From the Garmin marketing site [1]: "Garmin Autoland. It takes complete…
Cat II/III use ILS which send out signals on the runway(s) in question. IIRC, those signals need to be monitored to make sure they're with-in certain tolerances because II/III is used in minimal visibility conditions, so there's very little time to correct things at the last minute. It's about trusting a whole bunch of equipment to work properly because you're basically flying with a blind fold on otherwise. This Gar…
The marketing videos say the airport needs to have a published GPS approach.